Today I was talking to a customer about their VDI installation which is hosted on VMware vSphere 4.1 but the broker solution used by them is not VMware View. Currently they’re in a difficult situation as an update of the broker software requires them to have Windows 7 Embedded on their thin clients. Why? Because the broker has dependencies on a special Internet Explorer and Windows Media Player version which is not available on Windows XPe. For them that means that they’ve to invest a great amount of money to update to a new thin client operating system. Isn’t that weird? VDI should help customers to reduce complexity and dependencies on client hardware and software. In this case it’s all about offloading media content from the virtual machine to the endpoint for getting a better user experience. Think about that!

PCoIP uses host based rendering and has no dependencies on the client side. There’re people who say that that will affect the consolidation rate of desktops per host but is it really that bad? I guess no, and with the new Teradici Offloading cards it’s even better!

This customer will migrate their VDI installation to VMware View as they already own the licenses.

Thanks to @VirtualClarity (http://www.virtualclarity.com/) for posting an interesting link on Twitter.

The video features an interview with Tony Kerrison, CTO at ING who’ve rolled-out VDI into theit IT landscape.

Link: http://www.cisco.com/en/US/solutions/ns340/ns517/ns224/case_study_ingcustomer.html

Chuck Hirstius has released a public version of his cool tool PCoIP Log Viewer.

Source: http://myvirtualcloud.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/image6.png

Features:

• Parsing and graphical display of PCoIP performance metrics from PCoIP server log files (View 4.x, 5.0)
• Real-time display of PCoIP WMI counters (View 5.0)
• Ability to store WMI sessions for later review
• WMI-Rewind™  for DVR-like capability to move forward and back through time while viewing (or reviewing) a WMI session
• Tabbed interface to display multiple concurrent WMI sessions and/or log files
• Drag-and-Drop display of multiple (parsed) log files for easy/rapid opening when troubleshooting
• Export of saved WMI sessions to XLSX format for custom analysis and graphing

Link: http://mindfluxinc.net/?p=195

Via: MyVirtualCloud

We’ve been waiting for it a long time but now it’s here: The VMware View Client for Mac which includes support for PCoIP. Last night VMware published the tech preview version on the community forums. For downloading you’ll need a vmware.com account: http://downloads.vmware.com/d/details/crt_macosx_tp_dec2011/dCV0YnRAd3BidGVkdA==

Features In the VMware View Client for Mac OS X

-       Support for Intel-based Macs

-       PCoIP protocol optimized for VMware View 5

-       Full screen support for Mac OS X Lion users

-       Copy and Paste plain text between View 4.x virtual machines and Mac

-       Copy and Paste text, formatted text, and graphics between View 5.x virtual machines and Mac

-       Support optional RSA authentication

-       Enhanced certificate checking

-       Add up to 4 VMware View server shortcuts in VMware View Client

Here’re some notes from the Read Me file:

VMware View Client for Mac OS X
Tech Preview – December 2011

Introduction

The VMware View Client for Mac OS X Tech Preview is designed to connect to VMware View server based desktops using the high performance PCoIP protocol from the Mac.

 

We Want Your Feedback

Please post your feedback on the View Client Tech Preview in the VMware Mac View Client Community at:

 

http://www.vmware.com/go/macviewclient

Features In the VMware View Client for Mac OS X

 

-       Support for Intel-based Macs

-       PCoIP protocol optimized for VMware View 5

-       Standard drag and drop install for Mac apps

-       Full screen support for Mac OS X Lion users

-       Copy and Paste plain text between View 4.x virtual machines and Mac

-       Copy and Paste text, formatted text, and graphics between View 5.x virtual machines and Mac

-       Support optional RSA authentication

-       Enhanced certificate checking

-       Add up to 4 VMware View server shortcuts in VMware View Client

 

System Requirements

-       A VMware View desktop that supports the PCoIP protocol

-       An Intel-based Mac

-       2 GB of RAM

-       Mac OS X Snow Leopard 10.6.8 and Mac OS X Lion 10.7.0 or later

 

Installation

 

-       Double click on the VMware View Client disk image to mount it in the Finder

-       Drag the VMware View Client icon to the alias of the Applications folder and you are done

 

Adding Your View Desktop to VMware View Client

 

-       Launch VMware View from the Applications folder

-       Click on Add Server on the VMware View Client home screen

-       Type in the View Server address and click Continue

-       If prompted, enter your user name and RSA passcode and click Continue

-       Enter your desktop user name and password and click Continue

-       Select your preferred desktop and click Connect () or double click on it to connect

 

Connecting to Your VMware View Desktop

 

-       Double click on your View Server on the home screen

-       If prompted, enter your name and RSA passcode and click Continue

-       Enter your desktop user name and password and click Continue

-       Select your preferred desktop and click Connect () or double click on it to connect

Disconnecting From Your VMware View Desktop

 

To disconnect and choose a desktop on the same View Server

-       Click the Disconnect button () in the toolbar

 

To disconnect and choose a desktop on a different View Server

-       Click the Choose Another Server button () in the toolbar

 

To disconnect and quit the VMware View Client

-       Choose Quit from the File menu or type Command Q

 

Adding The VMware View Client To Your Dock

 

-       Launch the VMware View client

-       Click on the VMware View client in the Dock

-       Select Keep in Dock from the Options submenu

-       When you quit, the VMware View client will still be in your Dock

 

Known Issues

 

-       Unable to connect to Windows 7 based virtual machines using the RDP protocol. Workaround: Access your Windows 7 desktop with the higher performance PCoIP protocol or use the older VMware View 4.6 client with Microsoft Remote Desktop Connection to access Windows 7 based desktops with RDP.

 

Items Under Consideration for Future Major Client Releases Include:

 

-       Use of Multiple displays/monitors

-       Printing to locally attached printers

-       Full screen support for Mac OS X Snow Leopard

-       SmartCard authentication

-       USB device connectivity

 

Again, We Want Your Feedback

Please post your feedback on the View Client Tech Preview in the VMware Mac View Client Community at:

 

http://www.vmware.com/go/macviewclient

Kudos to Matt Lesak who posted a link to the VMware View 5.0 Documentation Center. He pusblished a link on Twitter which forwards you to the TCP and UDP Ports needed for VMware View. As I get tons of requests about the networking ports I thought it might be a good idea to pusblish this link on the blog.

The article gives you an overview of all ports with Source, Target, Port number, protocol and a brief description.

Example:

Link: http://3url.de/vmwareviewports

Original Tweet by Matt: #VMwareView network port table ow.ly/7Z8sv #VDI #VMware

Cyndie Zikmund, Technical Marketing Specialist over at VMware in Palo Alto pusblished a new article about a Zero Client strategy. This article gives you a link to a recetly pubslihed technical document which includes real life VMware View scenarios from customers who have successfully implemented a zero client strategy. A great document which help you to understand how to benefit from zero client environments. The cost less and have a smaller footprint, they’re easy to maintain and of course data security is a hot topic.

Link: VMware

Teradici has released a new firmware on Monday. One of the main features is USB support in a VMware View session. Here are the other features.

PCoIP Firmware Release 3.5.0 Key Features

Now available for download at http://techsupport.teradici.com, PCoIP Firmware Release 3.5.0 delivers improved performance, flexibility, security and access through the following new features:

• USB 2.0 Support with VMware View Sessions: With this new release, PCoIP zero client users can expect to see up to 3x improvement in transfer speed for bulk transfers (read and write) when compared to earlier PCoIP zero client firmware releases. The new firmware release also delivers greater flexibility by supporting a larger number of DVD drives.
• Imprivata OneSign® No Click Access™: Teradici and Imprivata have developed a joint PCoIP strong authentication solution by combining PCoIP zero clients with Imprivata OneSign Virtual Desktop Access with VMware View™. Compatible with a broad range of access cards and ID badges, this solution provides PCoIP zero client users with fast and secure access to their roaming desktops from any location with a simple tap of their badge.
• 802.1X Network Authentication: PCoIP zero client devices can now be deployed with the highest degree of 802.1X security using EAP-TLS certificate-based authentication.

Additional PCoIP Firmware Release 3.5.0 features:

• IPv6 support: PCoIP zero clients updated to support ongoing mandates for IPv6 adherence.
• “Help Desk” mode: Administrators can enable a login screen link which allows users to log into a particular VM of the administrator’s choice. This VM may be configured by the administrator to provide specific support directions for users.
• Support for up to 25 View Connection Server addresses: Adds additional flexibility and scalability for large enterprises.
• 100BASE-FX: Support for fast Ethernet over optical fibre for enhanced security over long distances.

In conjunction with PCoIP Zero Client Firmware Release 3.5.0, Teradici is releasing PCoIP Management Console 1.7 now available for download from the Teradici Support Site at http://techsupport.teradici.com.

Check this website for more information: http://www.teradici.com/pcoip/news-and-events/press-releases/2011-12-05.php

A free tool for VMware View with the name VMware View Portal eXtender was coming up in the last week. With that tool you can add a Content Management System (CMS) for branding and adding oher functionality to the View Portal. With the eXtender you can add functionality like announcements, links, support information and more. Here’s what the vendor says:

If you want to learn morr about the tool, you should check ou this website: http://www.techstur.com/Solutions/VMWare/Tech.aspx

VMware has published a few videos about vCenter Operations for VMware View. This article gives you just one of the videos. Please check this link to see more.